“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to put to rout all that was not life…” -Henry David Thoreau

Christmas, It’s The Best Time Of Year!

The boys have been so excited to put up the tree. Mr Finn has been talking about putting the ornaments on the tree for months – ever since he saw the tree from our shipping container. We are in our new apartment! We survived the move! It was just a few floors down, but a move is a move. The boys woke up just like last time and found the art supply box (which is usually hidden) it didn’t take long for red crayon to be all over the floor. Some lessons just need to be learned twice! We have made a lot of progress, this place already feels more like home than our last place. We have even hung up one of our butterflies. (Something we never did in our last place)

We didn’t have power in our apartment for two days when we first moved in so we used candles and flash lights – ever since the boys have insisted on burning tea lights every night. I love the effect that Christmas music has. I feel like it makes all my problems in life go away. Being on the blog always helps me keep more of a glass half full attitude, I have missed posting whenever I want. Speaking of which, I hope you enjoy this post! I am at Carrabou Coffee in the Dubai Mall. I may just never get internet, it’s a great excuse to go have a night out.

Sometimes when I am out alone like this, I can’t help but wonder if the phrase ‘I have three boys’ is stamped on my forehead. I am reminded looking at people alone that I probably don’t seem that old.

I have been getting better at driving! We went on a great adventure to a new park today. It was gorgeous. The weather has been just lovely. I really enjoyed the boys company, and Jude has been a rockstar with potty training. I have a lot of confidence in him going out now. I need to stay on my toes and make sure I have supplies because he hasn’t needed any. I can tell he’s really proud of himself. He still wears something at night in case, last night we forgot to put something on and he had an accident in bed. We are waiting for a washer and dryer to be installed. (That’s my hold up in pushing him completely to hold it at night) I would REALLY like a washer first.

Jude, even with the excitement of decorating for Christmas runs to the bathroom to go and runs back with his Christmas pants to help get them on. The blog beyond documenting, is worth every minute just to reflect. What great boys I have!! I feel blessed. Jude has been saying, ‘Thank you Mommy!’ lately a lot. Oh, Thank you Jude! Thank you!

We went to Global Village this weekend for the first time this weekend. I have been hearing about it from all of our friends out here and wanted to go for my first time with Ryan. Tt was a great success! Wow! Ohhh how I wish I had pictures to show you guys! Grandma Cindy, when you guys come to visit I am not letting you buy anything ‘touristy’ until we go there first. They have small buildings that are dedicated to one specific country – not every country has things worth exporting on a large scale but it’s still huge! We had heard the spices in Yemen were great, Iraq has also been a popular section for people to pick up art. For months I have heard dialogue like: “Oh where did you get that!?” Oh I picked those up over in Yemen! (Talking about Global Village) So we went and checked it out. Yemen really was great, definitely one of my favorites. They had these HUGE bundles of cinnamon. They literally are logs from a cinnamon tree. They aren’t strong, very mild. It’s nice. Yemen also had tons of different types of honey. Well, they kept giving us samples and they were on really small tasting spoons. Well, we let Finn have two or three – there were so many different booths and everyone wanted to give us samples! We kept trying to say no, but everyone was so persistent! Well, I guess he had one too many because he puked up! Seriously, he vomited in the Yemen building! Too much honey! We went over to Thailand and got a little food, and he felt much better. Africa had some beautiful things. I ended the night falling in love with some dishes from Tunisia. They were white and blue. I liked them, very simple design. I left most of my dishes in the dishwasher in our last apartment! Whoops! By the end of the night Finn kept getting curt with the sales people, “I said NO!” ” I don’t want to see!” He picks up on stuff fast.

The Cinnamon sticks quickly became used for sword fights.

That is the end of my pictures for decorating for Christmas! I would leave it there, but it could easily be a whole week until I am back here posting in the coffee shop. So I will leave you with these last couple pictures from our Turkey Bowl on Saturday. Jude got a Popsicle. He was a happy boy! I was a happy girl, beautiful clouds scattered the sky!

Ryan had his best Turkey Bowl Yet! No injuries, with a really fun group of guys. He had so much energy after he played a little soccer too.

Tomorrow, is my baby Royal James first birthday.

I can hardly believe it’s already been one year. Royal my dear boy, I am sure you will get your own post about your birthday. I sure hope you know what a privilege it is to be your mother. I love you bear! I am going to get your birthday cake!